✓𝐀𝐬 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭 『𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑘𝑒𝑦 𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑔』

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 70: Lian Xiu

Deep breaths, everyone😌

Let's go.

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The moment that the instigator of the cursed blood oath has left the premises, Wukong turns back to Xiu with a satisfied grin. This in itself is already an accomplishment to him. No more Chimangjing, the curse has been lifted, they can all go home and have things back to the way they were. Time has surely passed by quicker at the mortal realm, so he'd expect the city to somehow be back in its usual buzz, "What do you want to do when we get back?"

Her smile falters a bit, taken aback by the casual question, "What... I want to do?"

"We could do movie marathons. Oh! Maybe have a bowl of noodles at the pig's shop if you're up for it. Maybe we can go travel again like we used to. Those were the good times, after all--"

"Wukong." He glances at Meng Po, still fired up from his ideas. The deity shakes her head wistfully, "You may go back, I'm afraid that's the end of her journey to the mortal realm. Lian Xiu has been--and is supposed to be-- dead for hundreds of years now. I can't bring her back to the world of the living."

The simian turns his head, uneasiness sprouting from within his mind. Nevertheless, he maintained his laid-back smile as if he hasn't heard a negative outcome to the current situation. "But she's still alive. There's no way her soul can't get back up there unless... unless she died."

"Her current reincarnation as Ying Xiu is alive and well in the mortal realm, but Lian Xiu is a residue of the past that simply attached to her new souls, unable to reach true freedom of the mind. She's merely a compressed energy of suffering and uncertainties of her past lives."

"Current self... So Ying Xiu is still alive? Then—"

"All memories of her past have been separated to allow full recovery of her current soul. The severance starts from the moment she meets a remnant of those memories... which includes you, Sun Wukong," Meng Po finishes, hoping he'd understand her reason. She may have been able to erase the curse that binds her soul, but just as any other, time runs out for those who's already destined to die. Placing the old soul back now to the current one will only damage her even more, especially now that the connection that binds them together has been eliminated.

"Are you saying she'll won't... remember me?"

Sorrow flashed within their eyes.

Xiu was so confident about what she did that it barely crosses in her mind that this cycle would end. Her ignorance to her lover's efforts, their starting point of a relationship, it would all stop there just as things are escalating for the better.

"But— But, that's not— Ying Xiu met me as a cat. Does that mean her memories now is when she just moved into the city?... Can't you just remove the part where she began remembering her past? T-That could work, right?" The deity kept a tight lip as she persists on the final conclusion of what she could do. Fear struck him. More than his fear of death, his fear of abandonment by the one he loved most claws at his entire being that he began to shake as he steps back. "N-No... No, I can't accept that. That's... There has to be a way!"